High-energy demand and nutrient exhaustion in MTCH2 knockout cells

Mitochondrial carrier homolog 2 (MTCH2) is a regulator of apoptosis, mitochondrial dynamics, and metabolism. Loss of MTCH2 results in mitochondrial fragmentation, an increase in whole-body energy utilization, and protection from diet-induced obesity. We now show using temporal metabolomics that MTCH2 deletion results in a high ATP demand, an oxidized environment, a high lipid/amino acid/carbohydrate metabolism, and in the decrease of many metabolites. Lipidomics analyses show a strategic adaptive decrease in membrane lipids and an increase in storage lipids in MTCH2 knockout cells. Importantly, all the metabolic changes in the MTCH2 knockout cells were rescued by MTCH2 re-expression. Interestingly, this imbalance in energy metabolism and reductive potential triggered by MTCH2-deletion inhibits adipocyte differentiation, an energy consuming reductive biosynthetic process. In summary, loss of MTCH2 results in an increase in energy demand that triggers a catabolic and oxidizing environment, which fails to fuel the anabolic processes during adipocyte differentiation.